As most fans of Alan Ayckbourn's work know, many of his later plays have very dark undercurrents running through them.

What we tend to forget is that these menacing shadows were present in some of his early comedies too, no more so than in 1972's Absurd Person Singular.

Here we find three couples celebrating Christmas – and I use the term loosely – in three consecutive years. But among the tinsel and gin and tonics there is plenty of toxic waste. It's quite horrifying to find yourself laughing at a woman so distraught at the apparent breakdown of her marriage that she is trying to kill herself while those around her are completely oblivious to her distress. And in the same scene we are also invited to laugh – and we do – at the sight of a man suffering an extreme electric shock.

Ayckbourn is so clever at humorous dialogue and characterisation and here director Alan Strachan had the benefit of a first rate cast to underscore his wit.

The first Christmas is in the kitchen of Sidney (Matthew Cottle) and Jane (Lisa Kay) and although superficially it's about a young couple trying desperately to impress we see the beginnings of the bully whom Sidney is to become.

Next, debonair Geoffrey (Stephen Beckett) is telling neurotic Eva (Elizabeth Carling) that their marriage is over and there's lots of comedy business as clean-queen Jane de-gunks the cooker while Sidney unbungs the sink and then tips the water down it so it cascades all over him.

Finally, at the home of bank manager Ronald (Robert Duncan) and a very drunk Marion (Deborah Grant), upstart Sidney comes into his own and gets them all literally dancing to his tune like some power-mad Hitler-ish puppet-master. Again, this is hilarious but quite ghastly as the others demean themselves to keep him happy.

The cast were superb and as well as doing full justice to this Ayckbourn classic they reminded us that no matter how stressful Christmas might be, it is unlikely to be nearly as bad as the festive seasons portrayed in it.

Diana Eccleston

5 stars